Sunday, 17 November 2019

55,000 nurses recruited statement in the budget not accurate – GHS

The
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said the government has recruited 55,000
nurses to enhance healthcare delivery in the country when he delivered 2020
budget to Parliament, last week.

Apart
from recruitments into the health sector, Mr Ofori-Atta said the government has
also recruited tens of thousands of people into the various public sector
programmes.

The
minister’s statement has been disapproved by statistics from the Ghana Health
Service (GHS). GHS facts sheet on nurses and midwives enrolment shows a total
of 60,267 nurses and midwives as at 2016 (52,605 nurses and 7,662 midwives).
Currently, there are 68,492 nurses and midwives. This means the total number of
nurses employed since 2017 is 8,225, this contradicts the minister’s statement
in parliament.

“A
further 138,026 Ghanaians have been recruited under various programmes to
support public sector delivery”, the finance minister noted.

He
also mentioned some other achievements of the government which he claims has
put money in people’s pocket.

“3.6 million Ghanaians have
been registered under the national ID programmes while 1,000 sanitary
facilities are under construction to address open defecation and 49,000 trainee
nurses have been paid GHS468 million in allowances,” Mr Ofori-Atta noted.